Well another Rally of Canberra has
been run and won and what an event it turned out to be - there
were many internationals who came to the Nations capital.

Anyway once again the Mullets were
in charge of the Spectator Points and Flash was the Chief
Spectator Marshal, with RD and Effie as Spectator Point Managers.

Things got underway on Wednesday
when Flash and Mum arrived. It was straight from the Airport to
Saturday's main point at Kowen Settlement. Kowen had been changed
since last year and now used the cross over that was at EPIC, and
looked like being a great point. It also included the days
service area. From there we moved to Sundays point at Bluetts and
met RD and looked at what had to be done before heading out to
the Mineshaft. (Problem 1) On arrival at the mineshaft we found
that there was a 2 tonne concrete block in the middle of what
should be the Spectator Crossing, and do you think we could move
it, NO, we had about 6 of us trying to shift the bloody thing,
but it would not move.

(Thursday) We at least had some
sort of a sleep in, but once we were up we went straight to
Bluetts to finish of the webbing and sort out any other little
problems that we had to. It was then onto the Mineshaft again
and, guess what, the concrete block was still in the way, so with
a bit of Mullet thinking we created the gates around it. We then
headed on the New Bobs and looked at that, luckily everything had
been done. It was then Back to Rally HQ to see if we could get
anyone to move the block and sort out little bits and pieces.
Once we had finished up it was off to dinner and another Tram
Ride (you have to be there).

(Friday) Now things were became
serious - the rally getting underway from the city centre at
about 9 o'clock. Today saw RD and Wedge on New Bobs and Effie and
myself at the Mineshaft. Effie and I met our marshals at the
Cotter Pub before heading off to put them in place, and you would
not believe it, after all the problems we had 2 yrs ago we
actually had enough marshals to run the point, and, the
block had been moved. The spectators started to roll in,
unfortunately from the organisers point of view the crowds were
down on last year, but for those that did make the trip out they
were not let down. On the first run, Car 8, which was one of the
Internationals in the Hyundai Accent WRCar slid wide and hit a
tree just round the corner from the Mineshaft, but still in the
point, and lost a heap of time as we tried to get him out. As
normal Simon Evans was huge off the top and therefore he grabs
the prize for the biggest jump.

RD and Wedge had trouble of their
own when they got more spectators than the organisers thought and
ended up having to make the area bigger.

(Saturday) saw us all out at the
new Kowen Settlement. Unfortunately this was an earlier morning
than the last few. Today Effie was in charge. Everything seemed
to run smoothly with not many problems apart from the normal
spectators in the wrong place and a marshal that passed out from
the heat and had to be taken to hospital via an ambo, and of
course the Media trying to cross the road in unsafe places.Today
was the biggest day and it saw around 2000-3000 people spread
throughout the whole area including the service park and
thats not to mention the corporates who had their own area.
For those that turned out they were treated to some great action,
as you could see the start of the stage, the tunnel and jump in
the cross-over and all the action of the service park.

Once again we had to roll up all
the mesh after the days end and then headed back to rally HQ to
pick up batteries for Sunday and then off for another Tram Ride.

(Sunday) Once again saw us all in
the one spot out at the all new Bluetts Pine Plantation. This was
a great spot and had been set up like Bunnings in Perth for Rally
OZ. You could see the drivers down one side of a valley before
dissappearing into the forest before they came back out and came
up and along the road in front of you. RD was the man in charge
today. Problems were on the top of the menu today as things went
wrong from the word go. On arrival the helicopter landing pad had
been moved from its original spot in order to make a bus turning
area, that was OK until you then had spectators getting off the
bus and walking down the road while trying not to be hit by
Corporate cars which were allowed to drive in. RD seemed to find
himself a shadow which followed him around all day. He went by
the name of Bluetts 3 and was in charge of road closures up at
William Hovel, Coppins, Cotter and Uriarra, and he wanted
to relive his people with our marshals. After RD told him no that
was not our responsibility he then started to tell RD how to do
his job and tell us how to talk on the radios etc. Luckily Flash
came to the rescue and got rid of him before RD had a chance to
tell him really where to go. Then because of the great weather
Canberra turned on, we had a heap of spectators turn up, which is
out of the ordinary as it was a Sunday. This was not a problem
until rally cars, buses, corporate cars and people started to all
come down and use the one access road at the one time. As you can
imagine this caused night mares, but after some quick Mullet
thinking we were able to sort the problem out.

Apart from that everything ran
pretty smoothly with things finishing up about 2
o'clock for the live cross to RPM. After once again rolling up
the mesh, it was back home for a much deserved shower and rest
before the pathetic effort and excuse for an after party. You
could say it was good if you liked Hotdogs on stale buns and
beers ( No offence Hot Dog Mullet Im sure if you catered it
would have been great. Maybe we can recommend that for next year).
But when you have it on a licensed premises that under 18s
can not enter and half the people who worked all weekend end up
out side it is not a good situation.

Other than that the event turned
out to be great and most importantly once again the Mullets could
put their name to another great Subaru Rally of Canberra